Plenty of different and successful ways of knocking the sharp edges off of a bore muzzle. If it works, great.
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Patches being destroyed
- Thread starter Flintlock Whiskey
- Start date
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Good picture. How do you like the round bottom rifling? I just got a .40 cal. barrel with round bottom rifling. I shot 20 rounds through it. So far so good. I will be shooting it more next week at Friendship.Most agree that a smooth chamfer or edge break at the muzzle are critical when shooting patched roundballs. There are a number of ways to accomplish.
A lot of folks like to use their thumb and a bit of sandpaper on bore crowns, but I take it a little further, just for the sake of consistency, at least in my opinion.
Here is my method to smooth out or polish a muzzle crown once it has been cut square to the bore that I have posted before. Really minimizes if not completely eliminating patches being damaged at the muzzle when loading.
I use a series of ball bearings, from about one and half times the bore diameter, to right around bore diameter, and use sandpaper of different grits from 120/180 up to 320 or finer (I take it up to 1000 grit for a mirror finish). A couple of turns of the muzzle over each ball bearing with progressively finer sandpaper over them gives a smooth barrel crown to bore transition
Basic idea is to hold the sandpaper over the ball bearing (you can place ball on the floor and hold paper with your feet, maybe on a pad or thin carpet if you don’t have a lathe to chuck up the barrel in) and rotate the barrel bore on the bearing with the sandpaper on it. Easy to keep barrel square with the floor. I’ll start with the larger diameter bearing and roughest grit paper and end with a smaller ball bearing near bore diameter, repeating with progressively finer grit sandpaper. I stop when I have a slight chamfer on bore and rifling lands that is highly polished.
I use Dykem (or a Sharpie) to mark the inside the bore so I can easily see when I starting to clean up everything without going too far. Note the 60° chamfer in the photograph was cut on a lathe, I just use the ball bearings to break sharp edges and polish.
Just note with either method. If your barrel is already finished, you are going to remove finish from the face of the bore if you don’t protect it. I’ve used ‘masking’ tape with a hole punched through it (use a wad punch), but only on other people’s gun’s, not worrying about it on mine.
Currently have round bottom rifling in a number 58 and 62 caliber barrels (Hoyt and Rice barrels) with only good things to say about them. I use a thicker patch, for example, canvas that measures .022”, .0165” when compressed, and have found a wide range of powder charges that work well.
Crow-Feather
32 Cal.
A good patch lube will stop burning patches. I suggest you try other patch lubes so the burning stops. It could also be causing your patch to disintegrate if your lube is not doing what is required. I use moose milk, and have never had a burning patch.
Most agree that a smooth chamfer or edge break at the muzzle are critical when shooting patched roundballs. There are a number of ways to accomplish.
A lot of folks like to use their thumb and a bit of sandpaper on bore crowns, but I take it a little further, just for the sake of consistency, at least in my opinion.
Here is my method to smooth out or polish a muzzle crown once it has been cut square to the bore that I have posted before. Really minimizes if not completely eliminating patches being damaged at the muzzle when loading.
I use a series of ball bearings, from about one and half times the bore diameter, to right around bore diameter, and use sandpaper of different grits from 120/180 up to 320 or finer (I take it up to 1000 grit for a mirror finish). A couple of turns of the muzzle over each ball bearing with progressively finer sandpaper over them gives a smooth barrel crown to bore transition
Basic idea is to hold the sandpaper over the ball bearing (you can place ball on the floor and hold paper with your feet, maybe on a pad or thin carpet if you don’t have a lathe to chuck up the barrel in) and rotate the barrel bore on the bearing with the sandpaper on it. Easy to keep barrel square with the floor. I’ll start with the larger diameter bearing and roughest grit paper and end with a smaller ball bearing near bore diameter, repeating with progressively finer grit sandpaper. I stop when I have a slight chamfer on bore and rifling lands that is highly polished.
I use Dykem (or a Sharpie) to mark the inside the bore so I can easily see when I starting to clean up everything without going too far. Note the 60° chamfer in the photograph was cut on a lathe, I just use the ball bearings to break sharp edges and polish.
Just note with either method. If your barrel is already finished, you are going to remove finish from the face of the bore if you don’t protect it. I’ve used ‘masking’ tape with a hole punched through it (use a wad punch), but only on other people’s gun’s, not worrying about it on mine.
Also depends on how much powder you are burning. Another member here and I are comparing notes on our .62 rifles. Seems like charges of 110 grains and larger burn, crush, destroy and evaporate patches regardless of lubricant or patch thickness. So many variables at play here, it’s tough to say which one in particular causes damaged patches. But he and I are presently finding one variable at fault. Change a variable, like rifling or crown, or whatever and…you have more shooting to do!
It is happening with loads as low as 30gr ffg. I have received many good suggestions and am going to try the least radical first before I start removing muzzle metal.
Smart. Trying a tougher patch material is the cheapest and least radical.
I've been reading this thread with a great deal of interest. A lot of good suggestions and advice. My patches end up as fragments of burnt, shredded bits of material about 20 to 30 feet in front of my shooting station. I use a .490 dia. round ball, a .010 pre-lubed patch and 80gr. FFG pyrodex. After reading all the posts, I have a feeling the 80 gr. FFG might be the culprit. Actually, that's okay by me. All I shoot is paper and it doesn't mind.
Unless you have extremely shallow rifling you’ll do better with patches in the 0.015”-0.018” range with a.490 ball.
